The Langley Rams had victory in their grasp but couldn’t hang on as the Okanagan Sun took advantage of 10 turnovers to post in a 21-13 win at McLeod Athletic Park Stadium on Saturday.
The Rams’ Matias Bueno opened the scoring with a 33-yard field midway through the opening frame, and quarterback Duncan Little hit Jevon Cottoy with a 14-yard touchdown pass to give the Rams a 10-0 lead after one quarter of play.
The Sun responded with a pair of second quarter Isaac Wegner field goals and the Rams held a 10-6 lead at the halftime break.
Wegner made it four for four with a pair of third quarter kicks to give the Sun a 12-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Bueno opened the final frame with a 43-yard field goal to put the Rams up 13-12.
Wegner kicked his fifth of the game, this one from the 13-yard line, to made the score 15-13 Sun with 2:14 on the clock.
Any hopes of Bueno getting a chance to kick the game winner were dashed when a turnover gave the Sun a first down on the Rams two-yard line, they punched it in from there but missed the convert to take an eight-point lead with just over a minute to play.
The Rams had the ball with a chance to tie the game but it wasn’t to be and the Sun headed back up the Coquihalla with a 21-13 win.
Duncan Little completed 22 of his 38 pass attempts for 284 yards and a touchdown. He hit Jevon Cottoy with six passes for 97 yards and a touchdown and found Max Joseph eight times for 91 yards.
Little was only 16 yards shy of his fourth 300-yard passing game of the season but was responsible for half of the Rams turnovers with five interceptions thrown. He was also sacked six times and had five passes knocked down by Sun defenders.
Max Joseph was a workhorse once again for the Rams, adding a 56 missed field goal return and 67 punt and kick-off return yards to his receiving total, for 201 multi purpose yards.
The Rams defensive unit had another solid outing, limiting the Sun to only 206 yards offense, picking off three passes, knocking down six, and recording a pair of sacks.
Kyle Clarot led the way with three tackles a quarterback sack and an interception while other interceptions came from Tato Ferreyro and JP Kalambay. Isaiah Okoli had six tackles, Anthony Blackwell eight and Partap Sandhu added a sack.
The Rams head into a bye week with a 1-3 record and will look to re-group before traveling to Kelowna on Sept. 8 for the second half of their home-and-home series with the Sun.
